Delhi police personnel resist payout for dead cop

An anonymous letter — written on behalf of Delhi Police personnel over the ‘unfairness’ of forgoing a day’s salary for their recently slain colleague, constable Subhash Chand Tomar — warned senior officers of a potential rebellion within its ranks on Monday afternoon, sources claimed.

A statement released by Delhi Police on December 25 stated that one day’s salary of all police personnel would be donated to the family of Tomar.

They claimed the letter was addressed to the commissioner Neeraj Kumar and was dispatched through fax to Delhi Police headquarters January 12 afternoon.

The letter said the force of 83,000-plus would go to court if it was made to give up a day’s salary to help the family of Tomar, who died in the line of duty in the aftermath of the gang rape of the 23-year-old paramedical student on December 16 in the Capital.

It further said the measure was unprecedented and questioned why equivalent financial aid shouldn’t be given to the kin of every law enforcement personnel.

It states only between Rs. 100-Rs. 200 were usually deducted from the salary of senior personnel, such as sub inspectors and inspectors, in such cases.

“The letter argues that the amount collected if the entire force contributes a single day’s salary would be between Rs. 8 crore-10 crore,” an officer said.

The letter says the force would forgo salary only on one condition – if the amount collected was distributed among the families of all who died in the line of duty over the past five years.

“This way,” the letter states, “every slain police personnel’s family will be able to get approximately R10 lakh each.” Kumar said he has not seen any letter.

“We cannot comment on this because we don’t know about this letter,” Tomar’s son said.